MEMOIR OF BURCKHARDT. 105 



journal of his tour from Upper Egypt and Jiddah ; 

 and in October of the same year he sent the Com- 

 mittee a variety of papers, forming part of the 

 information he had obtained during his journey 

 through Arabia. They comprised, 1 st, Some further 

 fragments on the Bedouins, in continuation of the 

 remarks he had made on former occasions ; 2d, A 

 short history of the Wahabis, principally of Mo- 

 hammed Ali's late campaign in the Hejaz ; 3d, A 

 few notes to his former journals. 



The pains he took to study the character and 

 habits of the Bedouins, showed how deep an interest 

 he felt in that singular people. " 1 believe (says 

 he) that very little of their real state is known in 

 Europe, either because travellers have not suffi- 

 ciently distinguished them from Arabs in general, 

 or because they have attempted to describe them 

 without having had the advantage of seeing them 

 at leisure in their own tents in the interior of the 

 desert. Their nation is the original stock from 

 which Syria, Egypt, and Barbary derive their pre- 

 sent population; and for this reason alone they 

 deserve to be inquired into. But they acquire a 

 still greater interest when we consider, that amidst 

 the utter depravity of manners and morals, and the 

 decline of laws and civil institutions throughout the 

 Mahommedan world, the Bedouins are the only 

 Eastern nation who have preserved their ancient 

 customs, and who still continue to be what they 

 were 1200 years ago, when their emigrating tribes 

 conquered part of Asia, Africa, and Europe." 



